Welcome to the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight, curated by HackerNoon’s editors to showcase noteworthy tech solutions to real-world problems. Whether you’re a solopreneur, part of an early-stage startup, or a developer building something that truly matters, the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon is your chance to test your product’s utility, get featured on HackerNoon, and compete for $150k+ in prizes. Submit your project to get started! Welcome to the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight, curated by HackerNoon’s editors to showcase noteworthy tech solutions to real-world problems. Whether you’re a solopreneur, part of an early-stage startup, or a developer building something that truly matters, the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon is your chance to test your product’s utility, get featured on HackerNoon, and compete for $150k+ in prizes. Submit your project to get started! Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight Proof of Usefulness Hackathon Proof of Usefulness Hackathon $150k+ Submit your project to get started Submit your project to get started In this interview, we sit down with Mateo Kaiser to discuss Swarmed, a platform dedicated to connecting beekeepers with honey bee swarm removal leads. By processing thousands of swarm reports and building predictive tools, the project provides a much-needed lifeline to beekeepers facing unprecedented colony losses. Swarmed What does Swarmed do? And why is now the time for it to exist? Swarmed is the leading platform connecting beekeepers with honey bee swarm removal leads. Over 10,000 beekeepers use it across North America and Australia. We've processed 15,000+ swarm reports, and we generate $40k+ ARR. We're now building predictive tools on our dataset of 4+ million data points to help beekeepers anticipate and adapt to changing seasonal conditions. Now’s a good time for Swarmed to exist because beekeepers are facing record-high colony losses and require immediate, data-driven solutions to rescue swarms and preserve pollinator populations. What is your traction to date? How many people does Swarmed reach? Nearly 10,000 registered beekeepers across North America and Australia. 70+ partner organizations (beekeeping associations, biodiversity NGOs, municipal websites) embed our reporting forms and refer swarm leads. Our network covers 137.6 million people across 403 US population centers. We've done outreach to build relationships with over 20,000 municipalities, 8,000 emergency dispatch centers, and 16,000 public libraries that receive bee-related inquiries from the public. Organic search traffic brings in 20-40k monthly visits. Who does your Swarmed serve? What’s exciting about your users and customers? Three groups gain value from Swarmed. First, the general public who encounter bee swarms and need a fast, clear solution. Second, hobby and semi-commercial beekeepers (our paying customers) who want reliable access to local swarm leads worth €150-300 each in colony replacement value. Third, beekeeping associations that use our white-label solutions to coordinate their membership networks. Notable partners include the California Master Beekeepers Association, multiple state beekeeping federations, and conservation organizations across North America and Australia. What technologies were used in the making of Swarmed? And why did you choose ones most essential to your tech stack? Swarmed is powered by a pragmatic, highly-effective tech stack leveraging Bubble.io and Supabase for core platform functionality and database management, alongside Bright Data for operations. By integrating specialized APIs like Mapbox for precise geographic routing and Twilio, Brevo, Instantly, and Tally for seamless communication and intake, the team efficiently manages complex logistics and data collection without reinventing the wheel. What is traction to date for Swarmed? Swarmed recently validated its immense community support by fully funding a $21k Kickstarter campaign in under 24 hours amidst record bee losses. The platform's real-world impact has also been recognized on an international stage, securing the Future Innovator Award at The Hague Innovators Awards 2025, and earning media features in the Mountain View Voice, GlobeNewswire, and HSiF. Swarmed earned a 196 proof of usefulness score (https://proofofusefulness.com/reports/swarmed) Swarmed earned a 196 proof of usefulness score (https://proofofusefulness.com/reports/swarmed) https://proofofusefulness.com/reports/swarmed What excites you about Swarmed's potential usefulness? Beekeepers lost 55.6% of their colonies this year, the worst on record. Swarms are free replacement colonies worth €150-300 each, but most go unrescued because the public doesn't know who to call, and beekeepers hear about them too late. Swarmed fixes that coordination failure. We've already processed 15,000+ swarm reports and built the largest honey bee swarm dataset ever compiled. The usefulness has been immediate and measurable: beekeepers save money, bees survive, and we're generating data that could help predict swarm patterns and inform pollinator conservation. Meet our sponsors Meet our sponsors Meet our sponsors Bright Data: Bright Data is the leading web data infrastructure company, empowering over 20,000 organizations with ethical, scalable access to real-time public web information. From startups to industry leaders, we deliver the datasets that fuel AI innovation and real-world impact. Ready to unlock the web? Learn more at brightdata.com. Bright Data: Bright Data is the leading web data infrastructure company, empowering over 20,000 organizations with ethical, scalable access to real-time public web information. From startups to industry leaders, we deliver the datasets that fuel AI innovation and real-world impact. Ready to unlock the web? Learn more at brightdata.com. Bright Data: brightdata.com Neo4j: GraphRAG combines retrieval-augmented generation with graph-native context, allowing LLMs to reason over structured relationships instead of just documents. With Neo4j, you can build GraphRAG pipelines that connect your data and surface clearer insights. Learn more. Neo4j: GraphRAG combines retrieval-augmented generation with graph-native context, allowing LLMs to reason over structured relationships instead of just documents. With Neo4j, you can build GraphRAG pipelines that connect your data and surface clearer insights. Learn more. Neo4j: more Storyblok: Storyblok is a headless CMS built for developers who want clean architecture and full control. Structure your content once, connect it anywhere, and keep your front end truly independent. API-first. AI-ready. Framework-agnostic. Future-proof. Start for free. Storyblok: Storyblok is a headless CMS built for developers who want clean architecture and full control. Structure your content once, connect it anywhere, and keep your front end truly independent. API-first. AI-ready. Framework-agnostic. Future-proof. Start for free. Storyblok: Start for free . Algolia: Algolia provides a managed retrieval layer that lets developers quickly build web search and intelligent AI agents. Learn more. Algolia: Algolia provides a managed retrieval layer that lets developers quickly build web search and intelligent AI agents. Learn more. Algolia: Learn more

This story contains AI-generated text. The author has used AI either for research, to generate outlines, or write the text itself. 

Between Two Computer Monitors: This story includes an interview between the writer and guest/interviewee. 

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Dreamloops Earns a 40 Proof of Usefulness Score by Building a Practical Reflection Layer

Swarmed Earns a 196 Proof of Usefulness Score by Building the Leading Platform for Honey Bee Swarm Removal and Prediction

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